After enduring days of blistering criticism, the head of the TSA admitted Thursday that he could have handled the decision to allow small knives on board airplanes better.

The admission by TSA director John Pistole came in front of a Homeland Security subcommittee, whose members brought an array of props to make their points, from pocket knives to a golf club.

Pressed by Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), Pistole said he could have consulted with more groups about the decision, which has rankled flight attendant and law enforcement groups across the country.

“I could have done a better job of bringing them in earlier,” Pistole said.

But he didn’t back away from the new rule to allow knives with blades under 2.36 inches long and a half-inch wide that do not lock on planes, and he said the intelligence community has determined that improvised explosive devices — not small pocket knives — are the greatest modern threat to planes. And, he said, his idea to allow those knives is not a new one: 5 billion global passengers have flown under similar guidelines from the International Civil Aviation Organization.

“We’re unaware of a single incident involving these knives,” Pistole said. He emphasized that U.S. standards will still be stricter than the ICAO ones.

Members of Congress aren’t happy that Pistole didn’t call them before the TSA’s announcement. House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) told POLITICO Wednesday he felt “blindsided” by the decision, which he said he learned from media reports. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) called the way she heard of the decision “disappointing and challenging.”

Pistole repeated his assertion that for TSA, having to sort through the small pocket knives is a distraction from the real threat of explosive devices. Every day his officers have to pluck out 2,000 to 3,000 knives from carry-on baggage, inspect the knives and rescreen those blades. Each blade, he estimated, takes two-to-three minutes to handle.

Not everyone was convinced that the new policy was sound.

Jackson-Lee said she’d soon introduce legislation to overturn the TSA’s decision, but Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) had already beaten her to it.

Pistole said “obviously” if that bill is passed by the House and Senate and signed by the president, the TSA would reinstate the ban on knives, as well as hockey sticks and novelty bats included in the new list of allowed items. But unless that happens, TSA’s decision is firm, Pistole said.

Members didn’t just bring rhetoric and potential legislation, they brought props, too. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) held up a golf club and asked why two clubs will soon be allowed on planes, but not three.

And Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) held up three knives, two of which will be allowed under the new policy and one of which would not. He said there was little difference among the three knives, and he wondered how officers would be able to tell the difference between the blades. Pistole said they are undergoing that training right now.

And it wasn’t a snap decision, Pistole explained. He said it actually originated back to his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate in 2010.

“As part of my confirmation I had to agree to review that. So this has been an ongoing process for the last few years,” Pistole said.

““There are 535 members of Congress. There’s a lot of different opinions,” Pistole told reporters after the hearing. “Someone has to make a decision based on all the experts … and do what is right for the greater good.”

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:51 p.m. on March 14, 2013.